HonorWhat is honor? Is it the same as reputation? Or is it rather a sentiment? Is it a character trait, like integrity? Or is it simply a concept too vague or incoherent to be fully analyzed? In the first sustained comparative analysis of this elusive notion, Frank Stewart writes that none of these ideas is correct. Drawing on information about Western ideas of honor from sources as diverse as medieval Arthurian romances, Spanish dramas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the writings of German jurists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and comparing the European ideas with the ideas of a non-Western society—the Bedouin—Stewart argues that honor must be understood as a right, basically a right to respect. He shows that by understanding honor this way, we can resolve some of the paradoxes that have long troubled scholars, and can make sense of certain institutions (for instance the medieval European pledge of honor) that have not hitherto been properly understood. Offering a powerful new way to understand this complex notion, Honor has important implications not only for the social sciences but also for the whole history of European sensibility. |
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Arabic Arthur Conan Doyle Barber Bedouin behavior believe bipartite theory blackening blood-money blood-money group century challenge chapter code of honor context contrast court dishonor disputes drengskapr duel Ehre English êre Europe European honor example existimatio external fact feeling forn siðr Garrideb Gehl German gives Holmes honor code horizontal honor Icelandic Innstetten instance insult Irish R.M. Jonathan Wild jurists kind of honor Liebermann Liepmann literary Arabic literature major modern European Manshad Margaret Gilbert matter Maurer mean medieval Mediterranean Middle Ages Nathan naturally internal notion of honor occurs officer Old Norse particular Patricia Crone personal honor Phelps phrase Pitt-Rivers pledge of honor possession primary impugnment protection refer reflexive honor reputation right to respect Robreau rules Salāmih Sarakatsani seems sense of honor sexual offense shame Sherlock Holmes society someone Stewart story studies subjectified honor texts thing tion treated various vertical honor woman word honor Wüllersdorf